[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by Alan

I can't empathize with that at all. Parents feel without ease for a certain deformity of the baby, and latter on even just a benign but undesirable quality, and they are so uncomfortable about it that they cannot imagine raising it; and you want the child to be raised in this type of family?
The only scenario in which this could possibly happen is one in which personal aesthetics trump the loving link between a mother and her child. It's clear that you're a guy by positing such a ridiculous scenario to defend your arbitrary position on when it's right and when it's wrong to have an abortion.
What really IS a slippery slope is saying that if people can abort because they are aware of specific qualities in a baby which they weren't expecting, that they would simply start aborting until they 'get it right.'

You know, I was ready to leave this be, because in my last statement I thought I summed up my reservations but also my desire not to impair or impinge on a woman's rights to privacy afforded by Roe v. Wade. But you made the statement in bold above. So let me address that and the assertion that I came to this "arbitrary position" and presented this "ridiculous scenario" because I'm a "guy".

My scenario was not arbitrary (the idea of couples possible choosing to abort because a child might be born disabled was presented in the conversation prior to my remarks.) And to expand and show the relevancy of my position, would the same couple you describe above that cannot imagine raising a child with a deformity feel the same way about raising a child of diminished intelligence? It IS a slippery slope and I'm just saying it's worth considering. I NEVER said I wanted to dictate to anyone when they should or shouldn't choose to have an abortion.

Finally, regarding whether I would want a child raised by that family; it sure would not be ideal. However, I do know many people (both personally and by second-hand knowledge) who are survivors of abusive childhoods at the hands of bad parents who chose to have them, and none of them wish they were never born. I'm sure there are some who have come to that conclusion, but the world is a better place for the thousands and thousands of people who rose above such origins to become better people. So I don't have the same view of this that you do.